Heralds

All this business of heraldry as the art and knowledge of coats of arms
is fine, but why
is it called heraldry, and what does it have to do with heralds?

General

See Anthony Wagner: Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages.
Oxford University Press, 1956.

The first mention of heralds is in a poem by Chretien de Troyes, written
ca. 1170. They
were initially of the same class as minstrels, itinerant entertainers who
seemed to have been
early on associated with tournaments. Throughout the 13th century they
are mentioned in
connection with tournaments, identifying and announcing the participants.
Knowledge of
heraldry was thus one of their main skills from the beginning, and they
set themselves apart
from other minstrels by that specialization. By the late 13th century there
are mentions of
kings of arms (king of the heralds north of Trent in 1276, king of the
heralds of France in
1290), who often use a device with three crowns, and by the 1330s territorial
appelations
appear (Clarenceux in 1334, Norroy in 1338 in England). At some time in
the following
decades the territorial appelation brings with it responsibilities over
the heralds of that
area. By then, the most important heralds are permanently attached to a
sovereign and
come to play ceremonial roles during court functions. The creation of chivalric
orders
is accompanied by the appointment of heralds attached to those orders (Garter
in England,
Golden Fleece in Burgundy: in both cases the king of arms ultimately became
the principal
king of arms of the country).

The use of heralds as messengers (as in the modern sense of the word
"herald", e.g. names
of newspapers, "to herald the arrival of spring", etc) appears
in the 1330s in England, in
connection with the beginning of the Hundred Years War. In the late Middle
Ages, one
often sees heralds taking letters to sovereigns, or even acting as ambassadors,
as well as
performing various tasks before and after battle: transmitting challenges,
declarations of
war and other messages such as offers of surrender, identify friend and
foe, and also the
dead after the battle and negotiate ransoms for prisoners. Also, fromthe
second half of the
14th century, we have the first rolls of arms firmly attributed to heralds,
although the earliest
rolls date to the late 13th century. The compilation of rolls of arms in
their respective areas
becomes a standard part of the kings of arms' duties in the 15th century.

In the 16th c., when some kings tried to regulate heraldry for fiscal
or political reasons, the
heralds became involved because of their knowledge. Only in England and
Scotland did this
regulation become established. The English heralds, who first appear as
expert witnesses in
late 14th century heraldic disputes before the court of the Constable,
became in the 16th
century the main agents of royal control over heraldry. However, in other
countries, such
as France and Spain, the heralds lost importance after the 16th c. as the
forms of warfare
became quite different, ambassadors replaced heralds, and heraldry remained
unregulated.
The office was increasingly held by people who had no qualifications at
all for the job,
bringing the profession in some disrepute.

An Austrian herald.

There were usually three ranks of heralds. The kings of arms were either
appointed by the
king or elected by their fellow heralds, and there often werre several
kings of arms in a given
kingdom. Apprentice heralds were called pursuivants. Heralds begin to form
corporations in
the 15th century (in 1406 in France, 1484 in England).

England

France

The heralds were incorporated in January 1407, with the chapel of Saint-Antoine
in Paris
given to them to meet and have a library. There were twelve kings of arms,
chief among
them Montjoye, followed in rank by Anjou (Montjoye's preeminence was not
constant:
Charles VII, while he was disputing the crown to Henry V and Henry VI of
England,
created Gilles le Bouvier (1386-1455) as Berry king of arms in 1420, and
retained
preeminence as the first king of arms of France during his life; he was
also an important
historian, besides composing a vast armory with some 1900 arms). In the
16th century
a number of kings of arms (Valois, Champagne, Dauphin, Normandie) and heralds
(Guyenne, Angoulême, Lorraine, Orléans) are on the king's
payroll and sent for diplomatic
missions abroad. In 1487, the herald Bourbon was appointed as maréchal
d'armes
des Français with powers to compose a catalogue of all noble
arms in France and to rectify
incorrect arms. This appointment did not have any known result. A mandement
of September
30, 1535 by François Ier ordered heralds to research heraldic abuses
(particularly
usurpation of arms by commoners) and to prosecute them before the courts.
Contrary to
England, however, these orders had little effect, and in particular heraldic
cases continued
to be handled by the normal courts, rather than a specialized jurisdiction.

By the 17th century, French heralds were mostly incompetents. To remedy
this, an office of
juge général d'armes de France was created in 1615,
with jurisdiction over heraldic cases,
with appeal to the court Tribunal des Maréchaux. This court
had been created after the
abolition of the office and court of the Connétable in 1607,
and its jurisdiction covered disputes
of honor between gentlemen. The parallel with England is very strong; but
contrary to England
where the law of arms was outside common law and therefore common courts,
heraldic
disputes had long been adjudicated by the ordinary courts (royal judges
and the parlements
in appeal), and continued to be so even after the edict of 1615.

The office of juge d'armes was first held by François de Chevriers
de Saint-Mauris, who
was succeeded by Pierre d'Hozier in 1641. From that time until the Revolution
of 1789,
the office remained hereditary in the d'Hozier family. It was briefly abolished
in 1696 and
recreated in 1700. The juge d'armes approved all grants of arms by the
sovereign, and
also issued confirmation of arms. After 1706, he was empowered to issue
grants of arms
(règlements d'armoiries) on his own authority upon payment
of a fee of 50 livres, and
these replaced royal grants completely. His judicial authority remained
purely theoretical,
because the king never gave him the necessary resources: he had no
court, no clerk, no
bailiffs, and no means to enforce his decisions, although he was occasionally
used as an
arbiter in heraldic disputes.

Spain

As elsewhere, there were three ranks: persevantes, farautes or
heraldos, and reyes de armas.
The pursuivant had to be 20 or 22 years old, and was presented to the king
by two heralds
who detailed his qualifications. If the king approved, he baptized the
pursuivant by giving him
his name of office and pouring over his head water and wine. After at least
7 years in office,
the pursuivant could be presented again to the king, this time by two kings
of arms and four
heralds; his name of office would be that of a province or non-capital
city. A new king of arms
had to be approved by the whole set of pursuivants, heralds and incumbent
kings of arms, and
received as name of office one of the kingdoms in the king's possessions.
Heralds and kings
of arms had to take an oath of office, while pursuivants did not.

As elsewhere, Spanish heralds by the 15th century had mainly a ceremonial
role, as well as a
role as messengers and ambassadors. Their garments were the same. Under
the Reyes Catolicos,
Castilians were appointed asAragonese heralds and conversely. At that time,
the offices were
already becoming quasi-hereditary.

There is only one mention of a king of arms named España,
appointed by Isabel of Castile in 1477,
with wages of 25,000 maravedis. There is no further mention of this herald,
whose appointment
coincides with a program of celebration of the unification of the two Iberian
monarchies and the
recreation of the Visigothic Spain.

Castile

The office of Castilla is known since 1429, and its holder in
1519 was Juan de Peraza, grandson of
Guillem de Peraza who was king of arms of Aragon in the1470s, and father
of Guillem de Peraza who
was baptized as pursuivant Fuenterrabia the same year. Castilla's salary
was 24,480 maravedis. The
office of León appears in sources in 1434; Enrique Coronado
was appointed in 1477, with a pursuivant
named Frechas (named after Isabel's famous empresa) and his successor
in 1501 was Gonzalo de la
Cueva. Toledo is cited in 1442, named after the old kingdom of Toledo;
the holder's tabard bore Azure
an imperial crown or. Sevilla, Córdoba and Murcia
were also offices, with the respective arms on
the tabards. In 1496 an office of Granada was created to commemorate
the capture of that kingdom,
and given to Michel Vranclx, a Fleming who died in 1522 and was succeeded
by Nicaise Ladam,
previously herald Bethune.

Navarre

Évreux was the principal king of arms under the dynasty of that
name (until the death of Blanche in
1441), otherwise the king of arms was Navarra, the heralds were Estella,
Viana (the heir apparent
was titled prince of Viana), and Libertat, and the pursuivants were
Blanc Lévrier (named after the
order founded by Charles III of Navarre), Bonne Foy, Las,
Gounzcuant and Lamas. In 1519,
Carlos I appointed as Navarra king of arms Sancho Navarro,
previously Cataluña herald.

Aragón

When Juan II of Aragon died, his son Fernando, already king of
Sicily since 1468, succeeded him.
The same year he rebaptized Sicilia herald Guillem de Pedraza, renaming
him Aragón king of arms.
His successor was a prominent herald: Garci Alonso de Torres, born
in Sahagún (León). He wrote
three treatises, which are really three versions of the same treatise,
Blasón y Recogimiento de Armas,
studied in Martin de Riquer: Heráldica Castellana. Other
kings of arms were Valencia (bearing
Azure a walled city or surrounded by the sea), Mallorca (bearing
the same arms as Aragon), Sicilia
which was held under Alfonso V by Jean Courtois, another important
author precviously in the service
of Pierre de Luxembourg, count of Saint-Pol, and after 1504 Nápoles.

Germany

Bavaria

Examines in detail the origins, development, and
practice of the office of "imperial herald" created in
Bavaria in 1808 as part of sweeping political reforms,
particularly an edict stipulating that all aristocrats
must both document their status and register with the
state. Originally the imperial herald's functions were
primarily ceremonial, overseeing correctness in court
ceremonies, heraldry, and other affairs. Soon,
however, the mandated registration of all nobles - the
handling of which was the herald's responsibility -
overwhelmed all other tasks and became the herald's
primary function. Detailed analysis of the bureaucratic
functioning of the office and especially the compiling
of the official aristocratic registry indicates that the
latter was not a veiled effort to suppress or reduce the
nobility. Over 90% of all petitions to the registry were
accepted, the fees charged were nominal, and no
great "uproar" ensued. The registry (a practice soon
adopted elsewhere) was in keeping with the
modernizing trend of the times, establishing state
authority vis-à-vis the nobility and integrating the latter
into the state.